“Christian Resolutions, Part III” by Romans
Tonight's Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGYjKR69M6U
We are continuing in our Series, Christian Resolutions. Last week, we focused in on the reason why we add those items to our faith that Peter listed in the opening of his second epistle. We are to give diligence to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity. If we do this we will neither fall, nor become unfruitful. For the New Testament Christian, bearing fruit is a critical and foundational aspect of our relationship with God.
We are called to bear fruit, and not just have the appearance of fruitfulness, as that barren fig tree that Jesus cursed. The Parables of the Talents and Pounds, and Jesus' teaching that He is the True Vine and we are the branches, all add to and define our calling, and our bearing fruit. Jesus clearly stated in John 15: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches...
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:4-7).
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “The vine is a spreading plant, and Christ will be known as salvation to the ends of the earth. The fruit of the vine honours God and cheers man (see Judges 9:13), so does the fruit of Christ's mediation; it is better than gold, Proverbs 8:19. (2.) He is the true vine, as truth is opposed to pretence and counterfeit; he is really a fruitful plant, a plant of renown. He is not like that wild vine which deceived those who gathered of it, but a true vine.
Unfruitful trees are said to lie (as in Habakkuk 3:17), but Christ is a vine that will not deceive. Whatever excellency there is in any creature, serviceable to man, it is but a shadow of that grace which is in Christ for his people's good. He is that true vine typified by Judah's vine, which enriched him with the blood of the grape (see Genesis 49:11), by Joseph's vine, the branches of which ran over the wall (see Genesis 49:22), by Israel's vine, under which he dwelt safely, (See 1 Kings 4:25).
That believers are branches of this vine, which supposes that Christ is the root of the vine. The root is unseen, and our life is hid with Christ; the root bears the tree (from Romans 11:18), diffuses sap to it, and is all in all to its flourishing and fruitfulness; and in Christ are all supports and supplies. The branches of the vine are many, some on one side of the house or wall, others on the other side;
yet, meeting in the root, are all but one vine; thus all good Christians, though in place and opinion distant from each other, yet meet in Christ, the centre of their unity. Believers, like the branches of the vine, are weak, and insufficient to stand of themselves, but as they are borne up. See Ezekiel 15:2.
That the Father is the husbandman - the land-worker. Though the earth is the Lord's, it yields him no fruit unless he work it. God has not only a propriety in, but a care of, the vine and all the branches. He hath planted, and watered, and gives the increase; for we are God's husbandry, spoken of in 1 Corinthians 3:9. See also Isaiah 5:1-2, Isaiah 27:2-3.
He had an eye upon Christ, the root, and upheld him, and made him to flourish out of a dry ground. He has an eye upon all the branches, and prunes them, and watches over them, that nothing hurt them. Never was any husbandman so wise, so watchful, about his vineyard, as God is about his church, which therefore must needs prosper.
The duty taught us by this similitude, which is to bring forth fruit, and, in order to this, to abide in Christ. 1. We must be fruitful. From a vine we look for grapes (Isaiah 5:2), and from a Christian we look for Christianity; this is the fruit, a Christian temper and disposition, a Christian life and conversation, Christian devotions and Christian designs. We must honour God, and do good, and exemplify the purity and power of the religion we profess; and this is bearing fruit.
The disciples here must be fruitful, as Christians, in all the fruits of righteousness, and as apostles, in diffusing the savour of the knowledge of Christ. To persuade them to this, he urges, (1.) The doom of the unfruitful (in John15:2): They are taken away. [1.] It is here intimated that there are many who pass for branches in Christ who yet do not bear fruit. Were they really united to Christ by faith, they would bear fruit; but are only tied to him by the thread of an outward profession.
Though they seem to be branches, they will soon be seen to be dry ones. Unfruitful professors are unfaithful professors; professors, and no more. It might be read, Every branch that beareth not fruit in me, and it comes much to one; for those that do not bear fruit in Christ, and in his Spirit and grace, are as if they bore no fruit at all, (as in Hosea 10:1).
[2.] It is here threatened that they shall be taken away, in justice to them and in kindness to the rest of the branches. From him that has not real union with Christ, and fruit produced thereby, shall be taken away even that which he seemed to have, Luk_8:18. Some think this refers primarily to Judas. The promise made to the fruitful: He purgeth them, that they may bring forth more fruit.”
Have you ever considered this idea about God pruning the fruitful branches that they may bring more fruit? What is this pruning? The Preacher's Homiletical explains, “The Vine-dresser.—1. The vine needs special attention and care. A skilful cultivator is necessary. Left to itself, a vineyard would speedily degenerate and become comparatively fruitless. 2. So God watches over and cares for the spiritual Vine. He tended carefully the vine brought out of Egypt.
Much more will He specially care for this true Vine—the centre and source of life and fruitfulness for men. 3. The heavenly Vine-dresser is active in His treatment of the branches in the true Vine. (1) He cuts off all the fruitless twigs and branches which, through some cause, have been severed already from the source of life (see on John 15:6). But (2) “Every branch that beareth fruit,” etc.
The vine-branches need pruning lest the sap should run to leaves only. So does the Lord deal with His “people.” He cuts away what would hinder fruitfulness in the life. 4. This is a process that goes on both in the inner and outer life. In the best lives there remains some remnant of the old nature, which rebels against the “new man.” Hence, we must “Die unto sin, live unto righteousness,” even as Paul struggled against the law in his members (Romans 7:23), crying, “O wretched man that I am.”
But he could also thank God for victory through Christ. So Christ says to the disciples, “Now ye are clean,” etc. The light of His truth penetrates to the inner recesses of our being; the Word shows us to ourselves, and leads us through grace to put away evil and “cleave to that which is good” (see John 13:10), 5. But pruning goes on in the outward life also. There are things lying around us and connected with us that engross us too much and chain us to the world.
Men set up as gods some of those gifts entrusted to them oftentimes. This tends to weaken spiritual communion, and to check fruitfulness. Therefore God in mercy and love removes such things sometimes. The pruning-knife of trial, affliction, bereavement, cuts sharply down.
It is hard sometimes to have to give up this or that at the call of conscience or duty. But the heavenly Vine-dresser sees it to be good for those who thus suffer. “Before I was afflicted I went astray,” etc. (Psa_119:67; Psa_119:71). The pruning results in fruitfulness.
Application.—See to it that this is the result; for if not the knife may again require to descend, cutting even more closely than before. And there may come a time when, after repeated trials, all is found to be vain, and the branch left until it becomes profitless. Of this what shall be the end?”
Matthew Henry continues: “Note, [1.] Further fruitfulness is the blessed reward of forward fruitfulness. The first blessing was, Be fruitful; and it is still a great blessing. [2.] Even fruitful branches, in order to their further fruitfulness, have need of purging or pruning; - he taketh away that which is superfluous and luxuriant, which hinders its growth and fruitfulness. The best have that in them which is peccant (or, wicked), -
The best have that in them something which should be taken away; some notions, passions, or humours, that want to be purged away, which Christ has promised to do by his word, and Spirit, and providence; and these shall be taken off by degrees in the proper season. [3.] The purging of fruitful branches, in order to their greater fruitfulness, is the care and work of the great husbandman, for his own glory.
The benefits which believers have by the doctrine of Christ, the power of which they should labour to exemplify in a fruitful conversation: Now you are clean, (see John 15:3). [1.] Their society was clean, now that Judas was expelled by that word of Christ, What thou doest, do quickly; and till they were got clear of him they were not all clean. The word of Christ is a distinguishing word, and separates between the precious and the vile;
it will purify the church of the first-born in the great dividing day. [2.] They were each of them clean, that is, sanctified, by the truth of Christ (see John 17:17); that faith by which they received the word of Christ purified their hearts, Acts 15:9. The Spirit of grace by the word refined them from the dross of the world and the flesh, and purged out of them the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, from which, when they saw their habitual rage and enmity against their Master, they were now pretty well cleansed.
Apply it to all believers. The word of Christ is spoken to them; there is a cleansing virtue in that word, as it works grace, and works out corruption. It cleanses as fire cleanses the gold from its dross, and as physic cleanses the body from its disease. We then evidence that we are cleansed by the word when we bring forth fruit unto holiness. Perhaps here is an allusion to the law concerning vineyards in Canaan;
the fruit of them was as unclean, and uncircumcised, the first three years after it was planted, and the fourth year it was to be holiness of praise unto the Lord; and then it was clean, (see Leviticus 19:23-24). The disciples had now been three years under Christ's instruction; and now you are clean.
The glory that will redound to God by our fruitfulness, with the comfort and honour that will come to ourselves by it, (see John15:8). If we bear much fruit, [1.] Herein our Father will be glorified. The fruitfulness of the apostles, as such, in the diligent discharge of their office, would be to the glory of God in the conversion of souls, and the offering of them up to him, (see Romans 15:9 and Romans 15:16). The fruitfulness of all Christians, in a lower or narrower sphere, is to the glory of God.
By the eminent good works of Christians many are brought to glorify our Father who is in heaven. [2.] So shall we be Christ's disciples indeed, approving ourselves so, and making it to appear that we are really what we call ourselves. So shall we both evidence our discipleship and adorn it, and be to our Master for a name and a praise, and a glory, that is, disciples indeed.
So shall we be owned by our Master in the great day, and have the reward of disciples, a share in the joy of our Lord. And the more fruit we bring forth, the more we abound in that which is good, the more he is glorified. 2. In order to our fruitfulness, we must abide in Christ, must keep up our union with him by faith, and do all we do in religion in the virtue of that union.
Here is, (1.) The duty enjoined in John 15:4: Abide in me, and I in you. Note, It is the great concern of all Christ's disciples constantly to keep up a dependence upon Christ and communion with him, habitually to adhere to him, and actually to derive supplies from him. Those that are come to Christ must abide in him: “Abide in me, by faith; and I in you, by my Spirit; abide in me, and then fear not but I will abide in you;” for the communion between Christ and believers never fails on his side.
We must abide in Christ's word by a regard to it, and it in us as a light to our feet. We must abide in Christ's merit as our righteousness and plea, and it in us as our support and comfort. The knot of the branch abides in the vine, and the sap of the vine abides in the branch, and so there is a constant communication between them.
The necessity of our abiding in Christ, in order to our fruitfulness (John 15:4-5): “You cannot bring forth fruit, except you abide in me; but, if you do, you bring forth much fruit; for, in short, without me, or separate from me, you can do nothing.” So necessary is it to our comfort and happiness that we be fruitful, that the best argument to engage us to abide in Christ is, that otherwise we cannot be fruitful.
[1.] Abiding in Christ is necessary in order to our doing much good. He that is constant in the exercise of faith in Christ and love to him, that lives upon his promises and is led by his Spirit, bringeth forth much fruit, he is very serviceable to God's glory, and his own account in the great day. Note, Union with Christ is a noble principle, productive of all good. A life of faith in the Son of God is incomparably the most excellent life a man can live in this world; it is regular and even, pure and heavenly;
it is useful and comfortable, and all that answers the end of life. [2.] It is necessary to our doing any good. It is not only a means of cultivating and increasing what good there is already in us, but it is the root and spring of all good: “Without me you can do nothing: not only no great thing, heal the sick, or raise the dead, but nothing.”
Note, We have as necessary and constant a dependence upon the grace of the Mediator for all the actions of the spiritual and divine life as we have upon the providence of the Creator for all the actions of the natural life; for, as to both, it is in the divine power that we live, move, and have our being. Abstracted from the merit of Christ, we can do nothing towards our justification; and from the Spirit of Christ nothing towards our sanctification.
Without Christ we can do nothing aright, nothing that will be fruit pleasing to God or profitable to ourselves. We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:5: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;”. We depend upon Christ, not only as the vine upon the wall, for support; but, as the branch on the root, for sap.”
The fatal consequences of forsaking Christ (as is spoken of in John15:6 with the words, 'If any man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch.' This is a description of the fearful state of hypocrites that are not in Christ, and of apostates that abide not in Christ. [1.] They are cast forth as dry and withered branches, which are plucked off because they cumber the tree. It is just that those should have no benefit by Christ who think they have no need of him;
and that those who reject him should be rejected by him. Those that abide not in Christ shall be abandoned by him; they are left to themselves, to fall into scandalous sin, and then are justly cast out of the communion of the faithful. [2.] They are withered, as a branch broken off from the tree. Those that abide not in Christ, though they may flourish awhile in a plausible, at least a passable profession, yet in a little time wither and come to nothing.
Their parts and gifts wither; their zeal and devotion wither; their credit and reputation wither; their hopes and comforts wither, (see Job 8:11-13). Note, Those that bear no fruit, after while will bear no leaves. How soon is that fig-tree withered away which Christ has cursed! [3.] Men gather them. Satan's agents and emissaries pick them up, and make an easy prey of them. Those that fall off from Christ presently fall in with sinners;
and the sheep that wander from Christ's fold, the devil stands ready to seize them for himself. When the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, an evil spirit possessed him. [4.] They cast them into the fire, that is, they are cast into the fire; and those who seduce them and draw them to sin do in effect cast them there; for they make them children of hell. Fire is the fittest place for withered branches, for they are good for nothing else, (see Ezekiel 15:2-4).
[5.] They are burned; this follows of course, but it is here added very emphatically, and makes the threatening very terrible. This comes of quitting Christ, this is the end of barren trees. Apostates are twice dead (Jude 1:12), and when it is said, They are cast into the fire and are burned, it speaks as if they were twice damned. This is the ministry of the angels in the great day, when they shall gather out of Christ's kingdom all things that offend, and shall bundle the tares for the fire.
The blessed privilege which those have that abide in Christ (as seen in John 15:7): If my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will of my Father in my name, and it shall be done. See here, [1.] How our union with Christ is maintained - by the word: If you abide in me; he had said before, and I in you; here he explains himself, and my words abide in you; for it is in the word that Christ is set before us, and offered to us, (see Romans 10:6-8).
It is in the word that we receive and embrace him; and so where the word of Christ dwells richly there Christ dwells. If the word be our constant guide and monitor, if it be in us as at home, then we abide in Christ, and he in us.
[2.] How our communion with Christ is maintained - by prayer: You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. And what can we desire more than to have what we will for the asking?
Note, Those that abide in Christ as their heart's delight shall have, through Christ, their heart's desire. If we have Christ, we shall want nothing that is good for us. Two things are implied in this promise: - First, That if we abide in Christ, and his word in us, we shall not ask any thing but what is proper to be done for us. The promises abiding in us lie ready to be turned into prayers; and the prayers so regulated cannot but speed.
Secondly, That if we abide in Christ and his word we shall have such an interest in God's favour and Christ's mediation that we shall have an answer of peace to all our prayers.”
We read in Ephesians 5:6-9: “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;).” This is the fruit that God is looking to us to bear to His Glory and Honor.
Of this, Alexander MacClaren writes, “Ephesians 5:9: THE FRUIT OF THE LIGHT: This is one of the cases in which the Revised Version has done service by giving currency to an unmistakably accurate and improved reading. That which stands in our Authorised Version, ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ seems to have been a correction made by some one who took offence at the violent metaphor, as he conceived it, that ‘light’ should bear ‘fruit.’
{They} desired to tinker the text so as to bring it into verbal correspondence with another passage in the Epistle to the Galatians, where ‘the fruits of the Spirit’ are enumerated. But the reading, ‘the fruit of the light,’ has not only the preponderance of manuscript authority in its favour, but is preferable because it preserves a striking image, and is in harmony with the whole context.
The Apostle has just been exhorting his Ephesian friends to walk as ‘children of the light’ and before he goes on to expand and explain that injunction he interjects this parenthetical remark, as if he would say, To be true to the light that is in you is the sum of duty, and the condition of perfectness, ‘for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth’ That connection is entirely destroyed by the substitution of ‘spirit.’
The whole context, both before and after my text, is full of references to the light as working in the life; and a couple of verses after it we read about ‘the unfruitful works of darkness’ an expression which evidently looks back to my text. So please do understand that our text in this sermon is-’The fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.’
I. Now, first of all, I have just a word to say about this light which is fruitful. Note-for it is, I think, not without significance-a minute variation in the Apostle’s language in this verse and in the context. He has been speaking of ‘light,’ now he speaks of ‘the light’; and that, I think, is not accidental. The expression, ‘walk as children of light,’ is more general and vague. The expression, ‘the fruit of the light,’ points to some specific source from which all light flows.
And observe, also, that we have in the previous context, ‘Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord,’ which evidently implies that the light of which my text speaks is not natural to men, but is the result of the entrance into their darkness of a new element. Now I do not suppose that we should be entitled to say that Paul here is formally anticipating the deep teaching of the Apostle John that Jesus Christ is ‘the Light of men,’ and especially of Christian men.
The light which blesses and hallows humanity is no diffused glow, but is all gathered and concentrated into one blazing centre, from which it floods the hearts of men. Or, to put away the metaphor, he is here asserting that the only way by which any man can cease to be, in the doleful depths of his nature, darkness in its saddest sense is by opening his heart through faith that into it there may rush, the light which is Christ, and without whom is darkness.
I know, of course, that, apart altogether from the exercise of faith in Jesus Christ, there do shine in men’s hearts rays of the light of knowledge and of purity; but if we believe the teaching of Scripture, these, too, are from Christ, in His universally-diffused work, by which, apart altogether from individual faith, or from a knowledge of revelation, He is ‘the light that lighteth every man coming into the world.’
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And I hold that, wheresoever there is conscience, wheresoever there is judgment and reason, wheresoever there are sensitive desires after excellence and nobleness, there is a flickering of a light which I believe to be from Christ Himself. But that light, as widely diffused as humanity, fights with, and is immersed in, darkness. In the physical world, light and darkness are mutually exclusive: where the one is the other comes not; but in the spiritual world the paradox is true that the two co-exist.
Apart from revelation and the acceptance of Jesus Christ’s person and work by our humble faith, the light struggles with the darkness, and the darkness obstinately refuses to admit its entrance, and ‘comprehendeth it not.’ And so, ineffectual but to make restless and to urge to vain efforts and to lay up material for righteous judgment, is the light that shines in men whose hearts are shut against Christ.
The fruitful light is Christ within us, and, unless we know and possess it by the opening of heart and mind and will, the solemn words preceding my text are true of us: ‘Ye were sometime darkness.’ Oh, brother! do you see to it that the subsequent words are true of you: ‘Now are ye light in the Lord.’ Only if you are in Christ are you truly light.
II. Now, secondly, notice the fruitfulness of this indwelling light. Of course the metaphor that light, like a tree, grows and blossoms and puts forth fruit, is a very strong one. And its very violence and incongruity help its force. Fruit is generally used in Scripture in a good sense. It conveys the notion of something which is the natural outcome of a vital power, and so, when we talk about the light being fruitful, we are setting, in a striking image, the great Christian thought:
If you want to get right conduct, you must have renewed character; and that if you have renewed character you will get right conduct. This is the principle of my text. The light has in it a productive power; and the true way to adorn a life with all things beautiful, solemn, lovely, is to open the heart to the entrance of Jesus Christ.
And to talk about making a man’s doings good before you have secured a radical change in the doer, by the infusion into him of the very life of Jesus Christ Himself, is to begin at the top story, instead of at the foundation. Many of us are trying to put the cart before the horse in that fashion. Many of us have made the attempt over and over again, and the attempt always has failed and always will fail.
I do not want to cut the nerves of any man’s stragglings, I do not want to darken the brightness of any man’s aspirations, but I do say that the people who, apart from Jesus Christ, and the entrance into their souls by faith of His quickening power, are seeking, some of them nobly, some of them sadly, and all of them vainly, to cure their faults of character, will never attain anything but a superficial and fragmentary goodness, because they have begun at the wrong end.
But ‘make the tree good’ and its fruit will be good. Get Christ into your heart, and all fair things will grow as the natural outcome of His indwelling. The fruitfulness of the light is not put upon its right basis until we come to understand that the light is Christ Himself, who, dwelling in our hearts by faith, is made in us as well as ‘unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and salvation, and redemption.’
The beam that is reflected from the mirror is the very beam that falls on the mirror, and the fair things in life and conduct which Christian people bring forth are in very deed the outcome of the vital power of Jesus Christ which has entered into them. ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ is the Apostle’s declaration in the midst of his struggles; and the perfected saints before the throne cast their crowns at His feet, and say, ‘Not unto us! not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory.’
The talent is the Lord’s, only the spending of it is the servant’s. And so the order of the Divine appointment is, first, the entrance of the light, and then the conduct that flows from it. Note, too, how this same principle of the fruitfulness of the light gives instruction as to the true place of effort in the Christian life. The main effort ought to be to get more of the light into ourselves. ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ And so, and only so, will fruit come.
And such an effort has to take in hand all the circumference of our being, and to fix thoughts that wander, and to still wishes that clamour, and to empty hearts that are full of earthly loves, and to clear a space in minds that are crammed with thoughts about the transient and the near, in order that the mind may keep in steadfast contemplation of Jesus, saying, ‘Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth’; and the whole tremulous nature may be rooted and built up in and on Him.
Ah, brother! if we understand all that goes to the fulfilment of that one sweet and merciful injunction, ‘Abide in Me,’ we shall recognise that there is the field on which Christian effort is mainly to be occupied. But that is not all. For there must be likewise the effort to appropriate, and still more to manifest in conduct, the fruit-bringing properties of that indwelling light. We are often told that just as we trust Christ for our forgiveness and acceptance, so we are to trust Him for our sanctifying and perfecting.
It is true, and yet it is not true. We are to trust Him for our sanctifying and our perfecting. But the faith which trusts Him for these is not a substitute for effort, but it is the foundation of effort. And the more we rely on His power to cleanse us from all evil, the more are we bound to make the effort in His power and in dependence on Him, to cleanse ourselves from all evil, and to secure as our own the natural outcomes of His dwelling within us, which are ‘the fruits of the light.’
So Paul says, ‘Let this white light be resolved in the prism of your characters into the threefold rays of kindliness, righteousness, truthfulness.’ For the first of them - amiability, kindliness, gentleness -is apt to become too soft, to lose its grip of righteousness, and it needs the tonic of the addition of those other graces, just as you need lime in water if it is to make bone. Righteousness, on the other hand, is apt to become stern, and needs the softening of goodness to make it human and attractive.
The rock is grim when it is bare; it wants verdure to drape it if it is to be lovely. Truth needs kindliness and righteousness, and they need truth. For there are men who pride themselves on ‘speaking out,’ and take rudeness and want of regard for other people’s sensitive feelings to be sincerity. And, on the other hand, it is possible that amiability may be sweeter than truth is, and that righteousness may be hypocritical and insincere.
If you incline to kindliness, try to brace yourselves with righteousness; if you incline to righteousness, to take the stern, strict view of duty, and to give to every man what he deserves, remember that you do not give men their dues unless you give them a great deal more than their deserts, and that righteousness does not perfectly allot to our fellows what they ought to receive from us, unless we give them pity and indulgence and forbearance and forgiveness when it is needed.
And so, dear friends, here is a test for us all. Devout emotion, orthodox creed, practical diligence in certain forms of benevolence and philanthropic work, are all very well; but Jesus Christ came to make us like Himself, and to turn our darkness into light that betrays its source by its resemblance, though it be a weakened one, to the sun from which it came. We have no right to call ourselves Christ’s followers unless we are, in some measure, Christ’s pictures.
Here is a message of cheer and hope for us all. We have all tried, and tried, and tried, over and over again, to purge and mend these poor characters of ours. How long the toil, how miserable and poor the results! A million candles will not light the night; but when God’s mercy of sunrise comes above the hills, beasts of prey slink to their dens and birds begin to sing, and flowers open, and growth resumes again.
We cannot mend ourselves except partially and superficially; but we can open will, heart, and mind, by faith, for His entrance; and where He comes, there He slays the evil creatures that live in and love the dark, and all gracious things will blossom into beauty. If we are in the Lord we shall be light; and if the Lord, who is the Light, is in us, we, too, shall bear fruits of ‘all righteousness and goodness and truth.’”
But besides the Fruit of Light that we just examined tonight, there is also The Fruit of the Spirit spoken of by Paul in his Epistles to the Galatians, consisting of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). These are the very foundations of the Christians Resolutions, as I have called them, spoken of by Peter, which he admonished us to add with all diligence to our daily walk with God.
Peter's list and Paul's list are complementary as well as Foundational. We need, now, to begin a thorough examination of the Fruit of the Spirit beginning next week. I hope you will all be able to join me for that examination.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Christian Resolutions, Part III.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on January 22nd, 2020.
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